Water Sport Gifts

Scuba Diving

What is Scuba Diving? Scuba diving refers
to swimming under water and using breathing
equipment (scuba gear) to breathe under water.
Scuba diving gear consists of a mask, a self-contained
underwater breathing apparatus, and fins.

Other Names for Scuba Diving: Skin Diving,
Deep-sea Diving. The term scuba diving is actually
an acronym for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing
Apparatus.

Scuba Diving History: Diving has played
an important part in history. The earliest divers
date back to the very first sponge divers. Additionally
the story of Scyllis, refers to a Greek sailor
circa 500 BC, who used a reed to breathe as
he cut the mooring lines of Persian ships. There
were a number of attempts to assist with under
water breathing throughout the centuries. In
1771, John Smeaton, a British engineer, invented
the air pump. That invention was followed by
the invention of a rebreathing device developed
by, Sieur Freminet. Unfortunately, Freminet's
invention was a poor one, the inventor died
from lack of oxygen after being in his own device
for twenty minutes. In 1825, William James,
designed another self-contained breather, a
cylindrical iron "belt" attached to a copper
helmet. The rebreather allowed divers to submerge
for approximately 7 minutes. In 1873, BenoÓt
Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouze invented equipment
that consisted of a rigid diving suit with a
safer air supply, however the gear weighed about
200 pounds, making unrealistic. This invention
was followed by one by Henry Fleuss. Fleuss
invented a closed circuit, oxygen rebreather,
that was originally intended to be used in the
repair of an iron door of a flooded ship's chamber.
Fleuss' invention was developed in 1876. Fleuss'
invention was then used for a thirty-foot deep
dive. Fleuss' suffered the same fate as Freminet,
though the cause was different. Fleuss died
from the pure oxygen; oxygen is toxic to humans
under pressure. The infamous Harry Houdini even
got involved in the inventions of diving equipment.
In 1921 Houdini invented a diving suit, to aid
with his underwater escape. In 1942 Aqualung
was introduced. The Aqualung was developed by
Emile Gagnan and Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Modern
portable breathing equipment has become lighter
and has allowed for divers to stay under the
water for longer periods of time.